- More than half of all Americans take vitamin supplements. (Bloomberg)
- 41 percent of Gen Z and 47 percent of millennials who are engaged or have been married said they entered a prenup.
- The “prescribing cascade”: one drug causes side effects that doctors mistake for a new disease, triggering another prescription that creates its own problems, leaving people trapped in a sea of unnecessary and potentially harmful medications.
- A growing body of quantitative research indicates that some school-based mental health interventions actually create mental health problems.
- Why is the government under Trump investing so much money in so many private companies?
- Hospital expenses per adjusted inpatient day vary widely across states and ownership types, with costs ranging from under $700 to more than $6,000.
Category: Health Insurance
4 Ways Republicans Can Make Healthcare Affordable
They will give people more control over their medical dollars and increase access to affordable policies.
Tuesday Links – 27 January 2026
- California is the first state to join the WHO, after US exit.
- Why the US left the WHO.
- Study: people who eat five or more daily servings of ultra processed foods have an 82% higher risk of developing Crohn’s disease.
- Study: electronic health record issues were a potential contributor to diagnostic errors in about 61 percent of malpractice cases.
- Study: Places that produce more health care spending per capita among the elderly do not produce higher life expectancy. On the margin, there is little or no “health return” to higher medical spending.
- Fraud against government health-care programs is both common and costly.
- Congressional Democrats defend health insurance companies.
- Popcorn is actually a healthy diet choice; so is coffee and a moderate amount of salt.
- Avalere: MFN drug pricing will have no effect on 99% of Medicare beneficiaries.
- Value-based care has increased (rather than decreased) spending for the 11 million enrollees in Medicare ACO programs
More Hospital Systems Establish Medicare Advantage Plans
Large hospital systems often complain about Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Just last year some large hospital systems reported dropping or threatened to drop major MA plans run by health insurers. One complaint is low reimbursement, but arguably a more irritating business practices by MA plans is excessive prior authorization and slow payments. Breaking up with an MA plan runs the risk of shutting out thousands of potential patients. A strategy more large hospital systems are exploring is establishing their own MA plans.